Generally, a vehicle is equipped with various kinds of air bag apparatuses for protecting passengers in case of an accident. Among those, the curtain air bag apparatus is installed to prevent indoor passengers from being catapulted out of a vehicle through a door window glass in case of a rollover and a broadside collision of the vehicle.
The curtain air bag apparatus is configured to include an inflator, an air bag cushion unfolded by a gas pressure which is generated at the time of an explosion of the inflator so as to cover a door window glass, a cushion tether keeping a shape of the unfolded air bag cushion, and the like. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the air bag cushion 1 before the inflator is exploded is installed at a pillar 2 of a vehicle body in a folded state (rolled up and folded state) by a fixing apparatus. The fixing apparatus is configured to include a plurality of cushion bands 3 which are formed in a band shape having a predetermined length and a cushion bracket 4, in which the cushion band 3 encloses the folded air bag cushion 1 and the cushion band 3 enclosing the air bag cushion 1 is coupled with the cushion bracket 4 and the cushion bracket 4 is fixedly coupled with the pillar 2 of the vehicle body by a bolt or a screw.
The cushion band 3 is provided with a tear line. By this configuration, the folded air bag cushion 1 is unfolded while tearing the tear line by the gas pressure at the time of the explosion of the inflator.
However, the existing fixing apparatus configured as described above has a problem in that when the cushion band 3 enclosing the air bag cushion 1 is coupled with the cushion bracket 4, the cushion band 3 is not coupled with the cushion bracket 4 so as to be completely fixed to the cushion bracket 4 and thus the air bag cushion 1 and the cushion band 3 may shake at the time of the behavior of the vehicle and when the shaking as described above is continued for a long period of time, a load is delivered to the cushion bracket 4 and thus a bonding strength between the cushion band 3 and the cushion bracket 4 may be weak and, in severe cases, a quality problem of headlining may occur due to a deflection of the pillar 2.
Further, the existing fixing apparatus has a structure in which the cushion bracket 4 may not support the folded air bag cushion 1. In this case, when the air bag cushion 1 is unfolded, a portion of the cushion is likely to be unfolded toward the exterior of the vehicle and the portion which is unfolded toward the exterior of the vehicle is likely to be damaged and broken due to an interference with a panel of a vehicle body.
The contents described as the related art have been provided only for assisting in the understanding for the background of the present inventive concept and should not be considered as corresponding to the related art known to those skilled in the art.